Over 20% of Dutch schools "inadequate," Inspectorate says

Over 20 percent of schools in the Netherlands are “inadequate” in terms of quality of education, the Education Inspectorate said in its annual State of Education report. “In too many places, we are currently not offering pupils and students the education and opportunities to which they are entitled,” the Inspectorate said. These schools must learn from schools that are doing well.

The Inspectorate investigated the quality of education at 225 random schools and found the quality inadequate at 18.2 percent of primary schools and 22.5 percent of secondary schools. Half of the studied schools also did not meet all the legal standards for education in language, mathematics, and citizenship.

The differences in the quality of education are vast between schools. “While one school succeeds in having almost all students achieve the target level for language and mathematics, the other school succeeds with less than half of the students,” the Inspectorate said. “Nationally, we see that more and more pupils and students do not sufficiently master the basic skills of language, mathematics, and citizenship to ultimately be able to function independently in society.”

The Inspectorate also again raised concerns about the “dire shortage of teachers and school leaders.” Here, too, there are significant differences between schools. Half (49%) of schools outside the five largest cities don’t have a teacher shortage. At the same time, the number of schools struggling with “very high shortages of over 30 percent” has increased.

“Moreover, the shortage is greatest in schools that most need sufficient and well-trained teachers,” the Inspectorate said, specifically mentioning special education and schools with a “challenging” student population. “This also increases the differences between schools and is worrying in light of equal opportunities.”

It is time for urgent action, the Inspectorate said, pointing out that it has been raising concerns about school children’s basic skills and the teacher shortage for years. While the tight labor market is challenging to address, schools can learn from each other to boost quality in other ways. Because there are many schools that still manage to provide good quality education.

“However, we do not see enough positive practices being adopted on a large national scale. While those good examples offer opportunities,” the Inspectorate said. It urged schools that are struggling with the quality of their education to learn from schools where things are going well.

The Inspectorate also called on politicians to take more control over the situation and boost education “with a long-term approach and appropriate structural funding.” Politicians and schools must jointly determine what good education should look like and strive to achieve that, the Inspectorate said.

“As long as that does not happen, external parties such as consultancy firms, educational publishers, and homework institutes will fill the gaps.” And that increases inequality between kids whose parents can afford these extra services and those who can’t.